Chapter II: Part 2

In the western end of the island the betel palm of the Malay region has been sparingly introduced, though the fact does not seem to have been reported hitherto. A few were seen in gardens about Mayaguez and others in and near San Sebastian. So far as we were able to learn, the people do not know the name or nature of this introduced species which is apparently planted only as an ornament or a curiosity. The form is not unpleasing, but the extremely deep, sombre green of the foliage seems almost unnatural and imparts a suggestion of artificiality.

Only photographs and fruits of _Areca_ were secured at San Sebastian, but Puerto Rico specimens collected by Sintenis (no 5749) at Aguadilla have already been distributed from the Berlin Botanical Garden with the label “Palma Spec. Subtrib. Attaleae.”

ROYSTONEA Cook, Science, II. =12=: 479. 1900

_Oreodoxa_ Martius and more recent authors, not Willdenow.

The history of the generic name _Oreodoxa_ shows that botanical writers of the last few decades have been in error in removing the two original species and applying it to another series of similar but not closely related forms. To avoid further confusion with reference to a name which by reason of the conspicuous character of the trees has wide use in popular literature it seems desirable to add the following notes on the genus _Oreodoxa_ as originally established by Willdenow in the Memoires de l’Academie Royale, Berlin, 1804, a publication which seems to have been consulted very seldom, even by writers on palms.

Spathe universal, univalvate; spadix ramose, perianth monophyllous, tripartite below, the divisions ovate, acute, concave; petals ovate, acuminate, concave. Filaments six, of the length of the corolla; anthers oblong, acute. Style tripartite, shorter than the filaments, stigma acute. Ovule, drupe, and seed globose; drupe succulent, but slightly fibrous; seed single, cartilaginous, nearly smooth, marked with a longitudinal sulcus. In the discussion subsequent to the statement of the above characters, _Oreodoxa_ is said to be distinct from _Bactris_ in the tripartite style and in the absence of the “ordinary three impressions”; it is distinguished from _Areca_, then supposed to include _Euterpe_ and species now generally placed in _Oreodoxa_, in the single spathe, the triple style and the hermaphrodite flowers.

The first species is _Oreodoxa acuminata_, referred by recent authors to _Euterpe_ but probably constituting a distinct genus. The trunk is erect, cylindrical, very smooth, and attains a height of from 15 to 18 metres; the “root” throws out suckers at the base of the trunk. The fronds are pinnate, with opposite or alternate, very long, ensiform, acuminate pinnae, replicate at base. The strongly convolute young leaves form a green apex for the trunk, five feet high. Spathes cinereous, folded in at the base of the leaf-sheaths at the top of the trunk, univalvate, deciduous; spadix erect, much branched, having the appearance of a broom.

The heart of the bundle of leaf-bases, about two feet long and three inches thick is eaten as a salad, with oil and vinegar. It is also stated that the deciduous boat-shaped spathes serve as reservoirs of rain-water which is long retained in the cool shade cast by the trees. Birds and beasts, and human natives as well, are said to be dependent at times upon the liquid thus stored, since in the regions where the palm grows there are at times no other means of procuring water. The forests of the high mountain chain of Buena Vista in the province of Caracas are the native home of the species. It thus appears that in addition to the structural differences _Oreodoxa acuminata_ occupies quite a different place in nature from that of the more thoroughly tropical species commonly referred to that genus, and the stoloniferous habit also indicates a different ecology.

The second of the original species of _Oreodoxa_ is now referred to the genus _Catoblastus_. It is a somewhat smaller tree from 12 to 15 metres high, with a generally similar habit, and is also stoloniferous, but the pinnae are broad, cuneiform and praemorse, or irregularly truncate as in the species generally referred to _Martinezia_. The drupaceous fruit is grayish and the pulp is only slightly succulent; seed the size of a pigeon’s egg, its exterior brown, marbled with numerous veins. In the characters of the spathe the arrangement of the fruit and the edible quality of the heart of the leaf-cluster, as well as in the formation of lateral off-shoot this species is said to be similar to the first.

Botanists are not yet agreed upon the methods of dealing with complications like the present in regard to the names of plants, but it appears certain that those who do not recognize _Oreodoxa_ as a genus distinct from those admitted in the more recent works on palms must associate it either with _Euterpe_ or _Catoblastus_. The latter name it would in that case replace, being much older. Moreover, unless we are prepared to disregard Willdenow’s statements concerning the stoloniferous trunk, the simple spathe and the hermaphrodite flowers, to say nothing of many minor points of circumstantial evidence, there is no scientific warrant for applying the name _Oreodoxa_ to the noble Antillean species with which it has been universally associated.

The dried specimens which Willdenow studied were supplemented by notes of field observation by a court gardener, who was evidently also a botanist of some experience, to whom Willdenow refers as his “friend.” The living colors are described with considerable detail throughout the entire paper, which renders noteworthy the fact that the spathes are stated to be cinereous. This is in agreement with species of _Euterpe_ which have membranous spathes, but indicates a wide difference from the West Indian trees where the spathes are thick and fleshy and remain vivid green until they open and fall away.

The name _Roystonea_ has been given to this ornament of the Puerto Rico landscape as a respectful compliment to General Roy Stone, the American engineer officer who secured the admiration of the people of Puerto Rico by his fearlessness and conspicuous energy in the Adjuntas road-building campaign which flanked the line of Spanish defenses, and whose subsequent interest in the improvement of the island will undoubtedly affect its future history.

=Roystonea Borinquena= sp. nov. Plate _45. f. 2_.

Trunk normally fusiform, 30–60 cm. thick, 12–18 m. high. Leaf segments
4–4.4 cm. in width. Inflorescence robust, compact, twice branched, the
branches numerous and coarse, ferruginous, pubescent. Fruits
long-oval, yellowish brown at maturity. Seeds 8 mm. by 6.3 mm.,
flattened about the hilum, rounded below; wall of endocarp smooth,
adherent over a small area.

The royal palm of Puerto Rico differs from that of Cuba in having the trunk generally shorter, more robust and more distinctly fusiform. The inflorescence is twice branched, with the branches more densely clustered, coarser and darker colored than those of the Cuban royal palm, _Roystonea regia_. They are also covered with a slightly hispid brown pubescence while Cuban specimens are much smoother and more pallid. The difference of habit, to judge from photographs of the Cuban species, is most apparent when the trees have grown in the open, as when planted in avenues or along roadsides. In Puerto Rico, trees which are obliged to compete with other vegetation are often tall, slender and unsymmetrical. The typical form is shown in our photograph (no. 250) taken in the plaza of Juana Diaz.

Martius gives the width of the pinnae of the Cuban royal palm as from 8 to 12 lines. Cuban specimens show as much as one inch and a quarter, while others from Porto Rico are half an inch wider (44 mm.) of somewhat coarser texture and with more widely separated secondary veins. The fruits of the Puerto Rico palm are a deep yellowish brown when ripe, while those of the Cuban are said to become violet or bluish black. According to Martius, the fruits of the Cuban species are 6 lines by 4, but dried specimens show no such discrepancy of proportions and measure only about 8.5 mm. by 7.5 mm.

In Puerto Rico the fresh fruits are also much longer than broad, perhaps even more slender than the figures given for the Cuban; when dry they still appear somewhat longer and larger than the latter.

The seeds of _Roystonea Borinquena_ differ in several particulars from those of the Cuban species. In shape they are longer and less spherical, measuring 8 by 6.3 by 5.5 mm. instead of 7.8 by 7 by 6 mm.; the side bearing the hilum is much flattened and even slightly concave; the fibers radiating from the hilum are longer, and the corner between the hilum and the micropyle is evenly rounded, not sharply squared and prominent as in _R. regia_. On the back of the seed the smooth inner wall of the endocarp is closely adherent over a small area, while in Cuban seeds this wall remains attached over nearly the whole side and is furthermore distinctly rugose-coriaceous on the surface, and has a distinct sulcus in the median line.

The royal palm is not only the more conspicuous and characteristic natural object in most parts of Puerto Rico, but it probably exceeds the cocoanut in total economic importance. The most useful part is the _yagua_ or sheathing base of the leaf, with which a large proportion of the houses of the poorer classes are thatched or sided, or both.

The royal palm is one of the wild species which has been distinctly advantaged by human interference in natural conditions. It is a general fact that outside the climbing species palms are not successful in competing with tropical forest vegetation. Originally the royal palm and the corozo were probably confined to the more rugged slopes of the lower limestone hills where they both still retain a foothold in places where the natural growth seems never to have been cleared away. But the vast majority of royal palms now in existence in Puerto Rico stand on land which has been cultivated at one time or another, and where the palms were able to secure a foothold before the competition of other plants became too strong.

The discovery of root tubercles on a young plant of this species has been noted in the introductory statement. These tubercles though small in size are very numerous upon the smaller roots. In shape they are mostly oval and symmetrical. The larger are about 2 mm. in length though our natural-size photograph shows several fusiform or clavate bodies from 5 to 10 mm. long and as much as 2 mm. thick. The color of the roots and tubercles is white.

The royal palm of Florida is commonly referred to _Oreodoxa regia_, though with very doubtful propriety. Apparently on account of its great size, Cooper (Smithsonian Report 1860: 440. 1861) was inclined to identify it with _Oreodoxa oleracea_ which had also been reported from the Bahamas. The inflorescence and seeds collected by Curtis on the western borders of the everglades (no. 2676) are, however, obviously not those of _R. oleracea_ but are much more similar to those of _R. regia_. The branches of the inflorescence are much longer and more lax than those of the species of Cuba and Puerto Rico, from which they also differ in the frequent development of tertiary branches, in this respect resembling _Roystonea oleracea_. The fruits do not resemble those of _R. oleracea_ but are closely similar to those of the other species though somewhat smaller and more nearly spherical. Several reliable witnesses are on record to the effect that the trees are from 28 to 35 metres high and as much as 45 metres has been claimed, while among the royal palms of Cuba and Puerto Rico 18 metres is the commonly recognized limit of size. Mr. C. T. Simpson, of the U. S. National Museum, states that the palms of southwestern Florida lack the conspicuous bulge so characteristic in the trunks of the Puerto Ricon trees, and that they grow almost in reach of tide-water, while the natural habitat of the Puerto Rico species is evidently the limestone hills. In view of these differences it seems preferable to treat the Florida royal palm as a distinct species, for which the name =Roystonea Floridana= is proposed.

Mr. Simpson also informs me that the royal palms seen on the islands off the coast of Honduras had the size and habit of those of Florida and not the relatively stunted appearance of those seen by him in Hayti and Jamaica. This fact is suggestive in connection with the popular idea that the palms of Florida are to be looked upon as recent arrivals from Cuba. Instead it seems more reasonable to believe that the royal palm of Puerto Rico, like the species of _Thrinax_ of that island, is a remnant of the flora of the time when the limestone hills were keys and hammocks like those of southern Florida, and relatively poor in vegetation able to crowd out the palms.

=Acrista= gen. nov.

Trunk slender, of uniform diameter. Pinnae horizontal, appendiculate.
Inflorescences distinctly infrafoliar; spathes two, the outer short,
the inner long and slender. Spadix once-branched, the branches coarse,
tapering. Fruits with stigma lateral, seed deeply ruminate, embryo
basal.

Related to _Roystonea_, but differing in the more slender habit, the once-branched inflorescence, the basal embryo, and in having the leaflets in one plane. The color of the foliage is also considerably lighter than that of the royal palm so that from a distance the general appearance suggests the cocoanut rather than the royal palm.

There is also some resemblance between the foliage of _Acrista_ and _Cocops_, but the absence of sheathing leaf-bases in the latter genus will enable even young specimens to be separated. Moreover the leaf-divisions of _Cocops_ are much narrower and those at the end of the leaf are not so much shortened as in _Acrista_.

Further differences from _Roystonea_ are to be found, such as the much smaller size and the larger roots, which are tuberculate and inclined to become superficial like those of the llume palm. The sheathing leaf-bases are not as long proportionately as in _Roystonea_, and there is a distinct formation of fibers, although the texture is flimsy. The outer sheaths do not split off and fall away as promptly as in _Roystonea_ but several dead ones sometimes hang from about the base of the crown. Although the sheath is longer than in _Aeria_ the fibers are much better developed, there being but a few membranous shreds in _Aeria_, and no distinct fibers at all.

Among the mountains between Cayey and Guayama many summits are covered with the _palma de sierra_, probably in places which have never been cleared. A few of the palms follow down the steeper uncultivated ravines. From a distance the crowns suggest royal palms but a closer view renders the difference apparent. There is also no suggestion of the bulging trunk of _Roystonea_. In height the _palma de sierra_ probably does not exceed the royal palm.

The tips of leaflets of young leaves are connected by two brittle red strands both of which lie on the mesial face, one along the edge, the other near the middle. The tips of the leaflets are of the same material and are sometimes persistent as long corneous appendices like those of the cultivated _Howea_.

The generic name _Euterpe_ Gaertner, which is commonly applied to a considerable series of American palms related to the present, was in reality established for the Malayan genus for which the name _Calyptrocalyx_ Blume is now in use, _Pinanga silvestris globosa_ Rumphius being cited by both Gaertner and Blume as the original, in the one case, of _Euterpe globosa_, and in the other of _Calyptrocalyx spicatus_. The origin and identity of the seed described and figured by Gaertner have not been established, and seem likely to remain in doubt; but in describing _Calyptrocalyx_, Blume argued that the generic name should remain with the seeds studied by Gaertner and declared that these did not belong to any Malayan species but to some of the arecoid palms of the Mascarene Islands. This suggestion seems not to have been disposed of by Martius or others, but the fact that Gaertner’s fruits showed an apical stigma seems to exclude them from the American group with which the generic name has been associated.

In making use of the name _Euterpe_ for Brazilian palms Martius cites Gaertner as author of the genus and states that it is of worldwide distribution in the tropics. Gaertner’s _E. globosa_ is placed as a synonym of _E. oleracea_[5] Martius, and Jacquin’s older name _Areca oleracea_ stands in the same relation to _Euterpe edulis_ Martius, thus rendering _Euterpe oleracea_ Martius a specific homonym. Subsequently Martius claims the genus _Euterpe_ for himself and expresses doubt whether it is the same as that named by Gaertner, while Drude in Engler and Prantl’s Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien says “_Euterpe_ Mart. (nicht Gaertn.).” Martius also admits that the West Indian _Areca oleracea_ Jacquin is distinct from the Brazilian species of _Euterpe_, and redescribes it under the name _Oreodoxa oleracea_.

A further complication connected with _Acrista_ was brought to light by finding that specimens collected by Sintenis (no. 1525) in the Luquillo Mountains in northeastern Puerto Rico and distributed from the Berlin Botanical Garden as _Oreodoxa oleracea_ belong to the present genus, together with others collected in Martinique by Hahn (no. 805) and identified at Paris. With the last, the local name _choux palmiste_ is given, the same which Jacquin noted in the original description of his _Areca oleracea_ (Stirp. Am. 278. 1763). Moreover, it can scarcely be determined from Jacquin’s description whether he was dealing with a _Roystonea_ or an _Acrista_ or with both, though his claim that his was the tallest palm of the Antilles might hold the name for the _Roystonea_.

It might then be argued by some that Miller’s species, _Palma altissima_ constituted a segregate from Jacquin’s _oleracea_ and that the latter name is available for the _Acrista_ of Martinique, whether identical or not with that of Puerto Rico. But with a possible doubt between the _Acrista_ and the _Roystonea_ there can scarcely be a justification for the use of the same name for a third South American species or a fourth West Indian.

As a means of decreasing the confusion it may be suggested that as neither the generic nor the specific name of the Brazilian palm which Martius called _Euterpe oleracea_ (Hist. Nat. Palm. 2: 29) is available, the name =Catis Martiana= may be proposed, the generic designation having reference to the drooping pinnae characteristic of the present species and several of its South American relatives.

=Acrista monticola= sp. nov. Plate 44.

Trunk smooth, 10 to 15 m. high, perhaps taller, from 12 to 15 cm. in
diameter, with distinct ring-like leaf-scars and internodes, light
brownish or appearing grayish with bark lichens.

Leaves about 2 m. long, the pinnae lanceolate, equally spaced and
lying nearly horizontal, 55 cm. long and 4 cm. broad; the surface
light green on both sides, with very close parallel longitudinal
veinlets, but no visible cross veins. The sheathing bases are
considerably shorter and generally appear somewhat more robust than in
_Roystonea_. In protected situations the leaf-bases persist and the
margins shrivel up and expose a flimsy network of fibers.
Inflorescences appearing several close together; by the falling of the
leaves above them they are left several inches below the leaf-bases
before maturity is attained. Spathes fusiform, long, more slender and
pointed than in _Roystonea_. Spadix once-branched, 1 m. long, 6 cm. in
diameter at base, tapering gradually to the apex. Branches 23 cm. long
and less, the proximal branches longest; at first appressed to the
rachis, the branches are opened out and held stiffly erect by a fleshy
turgid cushion on the upper (distal) side of the base of each. The
branches of the rachis may thus be said to be hinged, and with
maturity the supporting cushion dries away and allows them to resume a
direction nearly parallel to that of the rachis.

The dried fruits of _Acrista_ are grayish brown in color and nearly smooth or somewhat coriaceous in external texture; they measure 11 or 12 mm. in length and are nearly as wide, being slightly oboval in shape. The outer wall is thin and brittle and covers a more or less distinct thin layer of amorphous brownish material probably representing the pulp of the fresh fruit; in the dry state this may adhere either to the outer wall or to the fibers next inside. Near the base these fibers are simple, pointed and vertical; about half way up they divide and anastomose and are, as it were, felted and cemented together to form an oval sac open below and closed above. The outer fibers are much coarser than the inner and there are sometimes suggestions of three layers separated by a dark-brown friable material. A few of the delicate inner fibers are adnate to the surface of the seed which is otherwise free from its fibrous covering.

Seed 8.5 mm. by 8 mm., slightly lighter in color than the outside of the fruit. Surface slightly uneven with obscure veinlike ridges and impressions of the fibers of the outer covering. The kernel is white, hard and bony, and deeply ruminate, though this is not apparent from the outside. The channels are very narrow and often radial and straight; they penetrate 3 mm. or less. Embryo directly basal; hilum lateral, somewhat below the level of the stigma; a short raphe extends about half way to the embryo.

Family COCACEAE

The cocoid palms are a distinctly American group, the African oil-palm, _Elaeis Guineensis_ and the cocoanut being the only outliers of the family which have been supposed to be indigenous in the Old World. South America is the center of distribution and is the home of a large proportion of the two hundred or more species. Only five genera reach Puerto Rico, and one of these, _Cocos_, was probably not a native of the island.

Key to the Subfamilies of Cocaceae

Trunks, stems, and midribs beset with sharp spines; seeds foraminate
at or above the middle.

Subfamily BACTRIDINAE.

Trunks and other parts unarmed; seeds foraminate at base.

Subfamily COCINAE.

Subfamily BACTRIDINAE

Some of the numerous South American representatives of this group are nearly smooth, but the three genera known from Puerto Rico have the trunks, leaf-bases, midribs and inflorescences beset with sharp black spines, and are thus readily recognizable.

Key to the Genera of Bactridinae

Trunk small, cespitose; leaves separated by long internodes; foramina
of seeds apical.

BACTRIS.

Trunk medium or large, solitary; leaves crowded together at the
summit; foramina peripheral.

Trunk slender; leaf-divisions broad, praemorse-truncate;
pistillate and staminate flowers intermixed on the
inflorescence; exocarp fleshy.

CURIMA.

Trunk robust; leaf-divisions narrow, sharp-pointed; pistillate
flowers below and separate from the staminate; exocarp
fibrous.

ACROCOMIA.

BACTRIS Jacquin, Stirp. Am. 279. _pl. 271._ 1763

The type of this genus, _Bactris minor_ Jacquin, described from the vicinity of Carthagena, Colombia, is a small spiny palm with creeping rootstocks. The upright trunks are about an inch thick and twelve feet high, with long spiny internodes. The fruits are fleshy, purple, and about the size of a cherry. Several species of _Bactris_ are known from the West Indies though the generic name has doubtless been applied rather loosely to all the small spiny cocoid palms.

The two following species of _Bactris_ from Puerto Rico described by Martius several decades ago seem not to have been secured by recent collectors unless it be true, as suggested below, that one of them, the simple-leaved _B. acanthophylla_ applies to a young _Curima_. Of _B. Pavoniana_ the narrowly grass-like leaf-divisions would be sufficiently characteristic to separate it at once from all other palms known from Puerto Rico.

BACTRIS ACANTHOPHYLLA Martius, Palm. Orbign. 67

“Trunk low, spiny; frond simple, the petiole spiny; blade lanceolate in young plants, oblong in the adult, cuneate at the base and bifid at apex, the margin unequally erose, unarmed; rachis and primary veins spiny on both sides; spines bristle-like, narrowed at base, those of the petiole black, those of the blades fuscous.”

“In the western part of the island of Puerto Rico, near the village of Yrurena, in swampy places on the margins of aboriginal forests at an altitude of 400 feet; collected by Wylder, 1827.” (Martius Hist. Palm. =3=: 281.)

A specimen to which the above diagnosis would not be inapplicable was collected by Sintenis in the mountain forests near Maricao (no. 484). It was distributed from Berlin as a _Martinezia_, together with two other very young plants and a seed to which one of these was attached.

The seed evidently did not come from a cocoid palm but together with the young seedlings may belong to _Acrista_. The large spiny plant is probably a young specimen of _Curima_, and should these suggestions prove to be correct the specific name _acanthophylla_ must be transferred to this genus though whether it will replace _colophylla_ or not is not to be determined until it can be ascertained that the Maricao species is the same as that here described from Bayamon.

BACTRIS PAVONIANA Martius, Palm. Orbign. 70

“Frond pinnate, rachis with rather long spines and black bristles: linear acuminate, about equally distant, the terminal united, setose-ciliate, glaucous below and with a sparse whitish down.”

“Puerto Rico; Pavon.” (Martius, Hist. Pal. =3=: 282.)

Grisebach has reported this species from Antigua and has redescribed it as follows, presumably from the Antigua specimens.

“‘Trunk low’; _leaves pinnatisect: segments numerous, grass-like, linear-acuminate_ or the uppermost broader by cohesion, glaucous and minutely puberulous or glabrescent beneath, approximate, subequidistant, reduplicate at the base: _rachis armed with very long black prickles_ and rare bristles, keeled above.—Flowers unknown; leaf segments (in our specimens, which are cut off, perhaps about the middle of the rachis) more than 30–jugal, 3‴–6‴ distant, 12″–8″ long, 4‴–2‴ broad, superior gradually shorter, the uppermost cohering ones sometimes 6‴–8‴ broad: prickles scattered or clustered, slender, the greatest 2″ long. Hab. Antigua: _Wullschl._, Blubber valley; [Portorico].” (Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. I., 520. 1864.)

=Curima= gen. nov.

Trunk rather slender, internodes armed with scattered slender spines.
Leaves and inflorescence also spiny, especially on the proximal parts.
Pinnae numerous, strap-shaped, praemorse-truncate, imperfectly
separated near the ends of the leaves. Inflorescence rather slender,
once-branched; pistillate flowers mostly located near the bases of the
branches. Fruit drupaceous, exocarp fleshy, not fibrous; foramina
peripheral.

A palm related to _Acrocomia_ and to the genera commonly grouped under the name _Martinezia_, to which _Aiphanes_ and _Marara_ are generally referred as synonyms. Reasons why none of these names appears available for the Puerto Rico species are given below. The characters of the fruit, with foramina near the middle, seem to indicate that _Curima_ is not remotely related to _Acrocomia_, from which it differs superficially in the more slender habit, the truncate or praemorse leaves and the very long and lax inflorescence.

=Curima colophylla= sp. nov. Plate 46.

The solitary trunk rises from a mass of spiny roots somewhat smaller than those of the llume palm (_Aeria_). Diameter of trunk from 1–1.5 cm., often slightly thinner near the ground, though showing no such tendency to bulge as appears in _Roystonea_, _Aeria_ and _Acrocomia_. The surface of the internodes is rather sparingly provided with needle-like spines smaller and more slender than those of _Acrocomia_. On old trunks the spines are often more or less completely absent.

Leaves 2.13–2.5 m. long, with from 30 to 40 pairs of strap-shaped praemorse-truncate divisions shorter and broader as the end of the leaf is approached, and with a terminal undivided area several inches wide. There is no apparent tendency toward the arrangement of the leaf-divisions in clusters as in _Martinezia caryotaefolia_ and other allied species.

The base, rachis, midribs and even the surfaces of the pinnae are beset with coarse black or deep red spines which are closely appressed when young and become erect as soon as the surfaces are exposed, all the parts except the spines and the upper surfaces of the leaf-division being covered at first with a light grayish or brownish scurfy coating which gradually disappears.

The inner spathe is narrowly fusiform and about 1 m. long. It splits to the level of the outer spathe revealing the spadix and its extremely spiny peduncle. The flowers are greenish cream colored in mass, paler and not so yellow as in _Acrocomia_. The pistillate flowers are relatively very few and located near the base of the simple branches.

The cherry-like fruits are dull orange or brick red with rather dry fleshy or oily exocarp having a rather mealy though distinctly acid flavor, but no really unpleasant taste. This fleshy covering is only very slightly fibrous, and that near the base; the seeds fall off very easily sometimes leaving the base of the exocarp attached to the fruiting branch. The nut is about 12 mm. in greatest or transverse diameter and about 10 mm. high, while the fresh fruit is 14–16 mm. through and 12 or 13 mm. thick. The surface is deeply and irregularly pitted and marked with three radially fibrous striate foveolae.

It is perhaps too soon to assert that there is only one species of the present genus in Puerto Rico. The trees certainly differ considerably in size though not more than the cocoanut and others. There is also a noticeable difference in the abundance of spines. Such apparent variability may, however, be due to age, the older trees tending to become less densely beset with the brittle black spines which are often conspicuous on young specimens.

The specimens (no. 878) and photographs on which this genus and species were based were secured on the limestone hills near the wagon road between Bayamon and Toa Baja where the present palm is not uncommon.

_Curima_ appeared to be especially abundant about Bayamon but is probably rather generally distributed in the limestone hills of the island, perhaps also on other soils. A few trees were seen along the road between Utuado and Lares, and numerous others between Isolina and Manati. Sintenis collected specimens of what is apparently the same species near Juncos and Hato Grande, and at Maricao young specimens discussed under _Bactris acanthophylla_.

As far as Puerto Rico is concerned, this palm is very easily recognized by means of the curiously truncate leaf-divisions, the outer margins of which appear as though accidentally injured or eaten away by caterpillars. This feature is, however, shared with numerous other West Indian and South American palms, though apparently only one, the so-called _grigri_ palm of Martinique can be referred to the present genus with confidence. For this the name =Curima corallina= (_Martinezia corallina_ Martius, Hist. Nat. Palm. 3: 284) appears to be correct, although Martius places Gaertner’s much older _Bactris minima_ as a synonym for his species. Gaertner, however, was making a second attempt at renaming Jacquin’s _Bactris minor_, having previously misplaced that name in connection with a West Indian _Acrocomia_, probably the same to which Jacquin had already supplied the name _Cocos aculeatus_. Thus it is possible to treat _Bactris minima_ Gaertner as a synonym of _Bactris minor_ Jacquin and the restoration of Gaertner’s inappropriate name for the _Curima_ is thus avoided.

With this preliminary description we may return to the consideration of the generic names _Martinezia_, _Aiphanes_ and _Marara_ which other writers have applied to relatives of the present palm or treated as synonyms. _Martinezia_ was described by Ruiz and Pavon (Prodr. Flor. Per. et Chil. 148. 1794) for five Peruvian palms, but it was amended by Martius (Hist. Nat. Palm. =3=: 283) by the removal of all the original species and the substitution of a new set. Of the original species studied by Ruiz and Pavon only two, _M. ciliata_ and _M. abrupta_ were mentioned in connection with the original description of the genus, and this because they offered exceptions to the generic characters. If these were to be excluded for this reason from those among which the type is to be sought, the name _Martinezia_ must go with the subsequently published _M. ensiformis_, now referred to _Euterpe_[6] or with _M. lanceolata_ and _M. linearis_, now placed in _Chamaedorea_. If we hold to the first species, _M. ciliata_, _Martinezia_ is probably a synonym of _Bactris_. The second species, _M. abrupta_, has escaped Martius and the Index Kewensis, in which a sixth name _M. interrupta_ is the only one by Ruiz and Pavon now credited as being a genuine _Martinezia_. Thus by the method of elimination _Martinezia_ would according to current classification replace _Chamaedorea_ while by the method of types it would stand as a synonym of _Bactris_.

The genus _Aiphanes_ was established by Willdenow on _Aiphanes aculeata_, a spiny palm from the mountains about Caracas. The trunk is said to be erect, ten meters high, subcylindrical and very spiny. The leaves are about 1.6 m. long, with four pairs of remote, broad, cuneate, praemorse pinnae, strongly whitish pubescent on the under side; the petiole is also beset with spines. Spathe acuminate at both ends, aculeate on the outside, smooth within, opening longitudinally; spadix 4.5 dm. long, composed of cylindrical spikes placed opposite. Flowers hermaphrodite; calyx trifid, the divisions acute; petals acuminate; filaments 6, subulate, anthers rounded, style as long as the stamens, stigma trifid; drupe globose, the fleshy farinaceous pulp rather tasteless, though edible; nut hard, of the size of a musket ball, unilocular, black, furrowed with a large number of grayish grooves, of which three are always much larger than the others. The kernel is white, very sweet, and very good to eat. _Aiphanes_ grows in the ravines and forests of the high mountains of the district of Caucagua, province of Caracas, Venezuela and requires a fertile, somewhat moist soil. It flowers and fruits in July.

From the above it appears that _Aiphanes_ is a genus quite different from _Curima_, approaching some of the South American species of _Bactris_ much more closely than it resembles the Puerto Rico tree.

The genus _Marara_ was based by Karsten (Linnaea, =28=: 389) on _M. bicuspidata_ from Colombia, a cespitose palm having a trunk 7 meters high and 10 cm. in diameter, clothed with black spines 6 to 8 mm. long. The leaves are 125 cm. long with from 60 to 80 pairs of cuneate pinnules which measure 3 dm. in length and 15 cm. in width, and are clustered in sixes or eights. This appears to be a very extreme development of the leaf-arrangement seen in the cultivated palm commonly called _Martinezia caryotaefolia_ where the leaflets are distinctly clustered, but by no means so crowded as must be the case when on the side of a leaf 125 cm. long are leaflets with an aggregate width of 10–13 m.

The palm commonly cultivated in conservatories as _Martinezia caryotaefolia_ is obviously allied to _Curima_, perhaps more closely than to either _Aiphanes_ or _Marara_, but in addition to the clustered pinnules it has a more slender habit, especially apparent in the long internodes and the more lax inflorescence. This difference in habit is also evidently correlated with the fact that the leaf-bases do not become deeply gibbous and obliquely inclined from the trunk as in _Curima_ but remain closely sheathing. Moreover, the upper side of the leaf-stalk which in the Puerto Rico palm is deeply channeled and has lateral corners sharp or torn into fibers nearly to the insertion of the lowest pinnae is in the conservatory species nearly cylindrical for a long distance below the pinnae, and has long spines on the upper side as well as on the lower. It is as though the ligule were located in _Curima_ near the insertion of the lowest pinnae while in the other form it remains close to the trunk, with a cylindrical section intercalated to reach to where the pinnae begin. Apparently we are dealing with still another generic group for which the name =Tilmia= would not be inappropriate in allusion to the shorn and disheveled appearance which it shares with _Curima_. The species studied are =Tilmia caryotaefolia= (_Martinezia caryotaefolia_ H.B.K. Nov. Gen. et Sp. =I=: 305. _pl. 699_) in the National Botanic Garden and =T. disticha= (_Martinezia disticha_ Linden, Cat. 32. 1875).

The seeds of _Tilma caryotaefolia_ are like those of _Curima_, but considerably larger, rounder, and much smoother. The foramina are peripheral, but are much smaller and more shallow, those of _Curima_ being surrounded, as it were, by a prominent rim which adds somewhat to the apparent width of the seed. In both genera the nuts are unsymmetrical, the side which has the largest foramen being distinctly larger than the others and in _Curima_ the irregularly pitted sculpture is coarser.

ACROCOMIA Martius, Hist. Nat. Palm. =2=: 66

A genus of palms distributed through tropical America from Mexico to Cuba and Paraguay. All the species are of stocky, compact growth, with a dense crown of numerous leaves. The trunk and the leaf-stalks are usually armed with strong, sharp spines, sometimes several inches long.

Although totally different on close inspection this genus has in Puerto Rico a superficial resemblance to the royal palm, which often deceives travelers. The similarity lies mostly in the two facts that both the royal and corozo palms are more robust and stiffly erect than the cocoanut, and that the leaf-divisions instead of lying horizontal and in one plane are tilted at different angles to the midrib, thus giving the foliage seen in the mass a somewhat unkempt appearance in comparison with the cocoanut.

In distinguishing the corozo palm from the royal palm when seen at a distance so great that the spines of the one and the columnar green leaf-sheaths of the other can not be seen, recourse may be had to the following facts. The leaf crown of the corozo palm is much rounder, thicker and more compact than that of the royal palm, since it contains many more leaves, and these persist much longer. The royal palm can also be known by the unopened leaves which project straight upward like flag-poles or lightning-rods, while in _Acrocomia_ the leaves open as they are pushed out and seldom offer a suggestion of the spire-like effect.

=Acrocomia media= sp. nov.

Trunk 20–30 cm. in diameter near the base, thickened above to 50 cm.
or less; height commonly about 6–8 m. rarely exceeding 10 m. Surface
of trunk with slight annular impressions. Internodes armed with
slender black spines, the larger 10–15 cm. long, mostly confined to
the lower half of the internodes. Fruit green, becoming yellowish, the
husk firmly fibrous, inedible; about 35 mm. in diameter, nearly
spherical in shape, with a distinct apical papilla. Kernel 25 mm. wide
by 22 mm. long; width of the cavity 18 mm. The type specimen was
collected near Ponce (photograph no. 255).

The _Acrocomia_ of Puerto Rico seems to differ from _A. aculeata_ (Jacquin) in its robust habit and somewhat bulging trunk, while it is less stout and less swollen than _A. fusiformis_ (Swartz). The name _Acrocomia lasiospatha_, although used by Martius and Grisebach has no warrant for supplanting _fusiformis_ of Swartz, which must be preferred for the Jamaica species with the thick, swollen trunk.

In Jamaica there seem to be at least two species of _Acrocomia_, the larger of which is called the “great macaw” palm, and is described as having a fusiform trunk as thick as a man’s body. What is presumably the same species occurs in Cuba as shown by a photograph from the vicinity of La Gloria on the north coast. The greatest diameter of the trunk is three or four times the thickness near the base. In Puerto Rico no trees approximating these proportions were observed, the greatest amount of swelling probably not reaching twice the diameter below. According to Maza _Acrocomia lasiospatha_ grows wild in Cuba and is known under the name “coroja de Jamaica.” Swartz described his _Cocos fusiformis_ on the supposition that it was distinct from the _Cocos aculeatus_ of Jacquin, from Martinique, by reason of the fusiform trunk. The species was, nevertheless, reduced by Martius to his South American _Acrocomia sclerocarpa_, perhaps because the spathe is said to be spiny, a character probably subject to great variation.

Jacquin’s name _Acrocomia aculeata_ (1763) must, it seems, be used for the West Indian palm placed by Martius under his _A. sclerocarpa_, which is to be maintained, if at all, as a South American species. Jacquin declares that the habit of his tree is similar to that of _Cocos nucifera_ and _Cocos amara_ (_Syagrus_), and his figure shows a tall straight trunk tapering slightly upward, with no tendency to bulge. The spines of the trunk are few and the midribs are aculeate on both sides. The drawing of the fruit is 37 mm. long by 41 mm. wide and has a broad conic papilla at apex. As indicated above, such a tree was not noticed in Puerto Rico where all the corozo palms are distinctly, though slightly, thicker some distance above the base, though apparently never equaling _A. fusiformis_ in this respect.

Subfamily COCINAE

Key to the Genera of Cocinae

Trunk distinctly ringed, rising from an inclined swollen base; leaves
numerous, many of the lower drooping or pendant, the divisions
many and narrow; fruits very large, borne continuously.

COCOS.

Trunk nearly smooth, straight and columnar; leaves fewer, not becoming
pendant, divisions less numerous and broader; fruits small, borne
at one time and ripening together.

COCOPS.

COCOS NUCIFERA Linn. Sp. Pl. 1188. 1753

The cocoa-palm is largely confined to the neighborhood of the coast, but is occasionally planted in small numbers in the interior districts, though it generally does not thrive in such situations especially on the north side of the island. On the drier southern slope of Puerto Rico, which is avoided by the royal palm, the cocoanut seems to thrive better, when it has once become established. Cocoanuts are mostly gathered while still green, for the sake of the milk or, as it is there called, the water (_coco de agua_) a popular beverage wherever obtainable. Although the local consumption of nuts for this purpose is considerable it is largely confined to the towns of the coast region. Thus it may be said that in Puerto Rico the cocoa-palm affords a luxury rather than a necessity, and that it is exceeded in economic importance by the royal palm.

=Cocops= gen. nov.

In a valley on the road between Lares and San Sebastian several young palms were noticed with leaves similar to the cocoanut, but smaller and finer. Finally one mature specimen was found, with both trunk and leaves strongly suggesting the cocoanut, but much smaller. The leaves are light green, the leaflets in one plane, and the fibers separating from the narrow base of the leaf. The fibers are few and flimsy, but like those of the cocoanut and other South American species of _Cocos_. The palm stood within a few feet of a small permanent brook, down which the seeds had evidently been carried and there were several young palms along the bank. The native living in an adjacent house could give us no name except _palmilla_, and seemed to think that none was necessary since the tree does not yield _yagua_ or anything else of use. Its early extermination is therefore not unlikely.

In the absence of flowers and fruit[7] the relationships of the present genus cannot be ascertained nor its validity satisfactorily established. There seems, however, to be no reason for including the species in any of the genera known from Puerto Rico or other parts of the West Indies, and to associate it with Central and South American types would be a still less warrantable procedure.

It is also believed that under the present circumstances the application of a name is justified by convenience of reference and that this will also assist in securing the attention of botanical collectors better than a mere allusion to “an unknown palm which may be new.”

=Cocops rivalis= sp. nov.

In diameter the trunk appeared to be about midway between the palma de sierra (_Acrista_) and the cocoanut, and had the short internodes of the latter. The leaves, however, probably remain somewhat smaller than those of _Acrista_ to which they might also be said to have a general similarity, except at the base where their cocoid proclivities become obvious. At a little distance _Cocops_ might be overlooked as _Acrista_, while at shorter range it might be mistaken for a very depauperate cocoanut. No species of _Cocos_ is, however, known to be native in the West Indies except the doubtful _Cocos crispus_ H.B.K., from Cuba.

As a species _Cocops rivalis_ may prove to be similar to _Syagrus amara_ (Jacquin), which is reported as far north as Jamaica, but it seems to have no true generic affinity with _Syagrus cocoides_ Martius, the South American palm which is the type of its genus. According to Martius _S. amara_ is 30 cm. in diameter, as large or larger than _Cocos nucifera_ and attains the height of from 20 to 35 meters; _Syagrus cocoides_, on the other hand, is a small slender palm with a trunk 2.5–3 m. high and 5–7.5 cm. in diameter, and with foliage and habit resembling the slender and diffuse South American species referred by Martius to _Cocos_, but very different from _Cocos nucifera_ or from _Cocops_.

A leaf collected by Sintenis (no. 6061) near Camuy and coming from Berlin labeled _Oreodoxa_, obviously did not originate with an arecoid palm, but probably belongs with the present species. The region of Camuy is but a few miles from Lares, but there is much extremely rough and unoccupied country between, so that the danger of extermination appears to be somewhat diminished.

Explanation of Plates

PLATE 43. _Thrincoma alta_, top of type specimen (no. 848).

PLATE 44.. _Thrincoma alta_, part of leaf and seeds, natural size.

PLATE 45.. _Thrinax Ponceana_, type (no. 1005).

PLATE 46.. _Acrista monticola_, type (no. 761) collected near
Adjuntas.

PLATE 47.. Fig. 1, _Aeria attenuata_. Fig. 2, _Cocops rivalis_ (left)
and _Roystonea Borinquena_ (right).

PLATE 48.. _Curima colophylla_, apex of flower-cluster and terminal
leaf-division, natural size. From type specimen (no. 878).

PL. 43.

THRINCOMA ALTA

HELIOTYPE CO., BOSTON.
]

PL. 44.

THRINCOMA ALTA

HELIOTYPE CO., BOSTON.
]

PL. 45.

THRINAX PONCEANA

HELIOTYPE CO., BOSTON.
]

PL. 46.

ACRISTA MONTICOLA

HELIOTYPE CO., BOSTON.
]

PL. 47.

AERIA ATTENUATA COCOPS RIVALIS
]

PL. 48.

CURIMA COLOPHYLLA

HELIOTYPE CO., BOSTON.
]

-----

Footnote 1:

This spelling and the adjective use of the name in this form are
editorial corrections.

Footnote 2:

Of numerous insects distinctive of the more southern palmetto the most
conspicuous is a longicorn beetle, _Agallissus chamaeropis_ Horn, the
larvae of which bore in the leaf-bases. The more common _Inodes_ is
inhabited by the allied genus _Zagymnus_, though another species of
_Agallissus_ is reported from Texas, where the native _Inodes_ is of
the smooth-trunked type.

Footnote 3:

=Inodes vestita= sp. nov. Trunk about 45 cm. thick at base, columnar
or tapering upward; surface rimose, the chinks commonly 5 mm. wide and
20 mm. apart. Leaf-bases torn into very numerous, fine, hair-like,
light reddish-brown fibers, a few much coarser than the others and
measuring from .6 to 1 mm. in diameter. The epidermis separates into
delicate membranous shreds, the surface of which is delicately pitted
and sparsely beset with brownish hairy-margined peltate scales.
Petiole 10 cm. or upward in width below near where it begins to split,
4.5 cm. wide at base of ligule; 3 m. long, concave above; blade 2.13
m. long, 2.50 m. wide, composed of about 60 segments, the apical
united more than two-thirds their length, the basal for less than
one-third; apical segments 4.5 cm. wide, deeply divided above, a long
fiber terminating both the longer and the shorter ribs.

As shown by the rimose bark this species affords a rather extreme instance of the gradual enlargement of the trunk at a distance from the growing point. Numerous leaf-bases remain attached to the trunk in the greenhouse as they would not do in nature, since they are torn loose except for a few fibers at the extreme sides.

Footnote 4:

Dr. Rose also kindly permits the use of the following field notes and measurements showing that _Inodes Rosei_ is also a taller and more slender tree than _I. Uresana_.

“Trees 6–12 or sometimes even 18 meters high, the long slender naked
trunk 15–20 cm. in diameter, crowned with a large cluster of leaves;
petioles 60 cm. or more long, flat on the face, pubescent, but
becoming glabrate; blade pale green, 8 cm. or more in width, strongly
keeled, more or less clothed beneath with brown scales on the large
veins; segments cleft to below the middle, 25 mm. or less wide;
inflorescence in large branching panicles 60 cm. or more long; fruit
spherical, 18 mm. in diameter, blackish or dark blue when mature.”

“A very common tree east of Rosario towards Mazatlan, also extending all the way from Rosario to Acaponeta; especially common on the low hills, and east of Rosario toward the mountains. This species is of considerable economic importance, the trunks being used in building fences, corrals and huts, while the leaves appear as thatch on a majority of the houses of this region.”

Footnote 5:

Hist. Nat. Palmarum 2: 29.

Footnote 6:

Roemer and Schultes treated _Martinezia_ as a synonym of _Oreodoxa_.

Footnote 7:

That the fruits are small and are ripened at one season, as stated in the key, was apparent from the size of the seedlings and from other circumstances which accorded with the testimony of the man whose house stood within a few rods of the largest tree.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling. 2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. 3. Re-indexed footnotes using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter. 4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.